40 weeks and 2 days pregnant

And...I'm not in labor, my water hasn't broke, no mucus plug has been lost (sorry for the TMI), no contractions to speak of (just little ones that don't last), nada.

My due date was this past Saturday, April 24th - also my 36th birthday.

We celebrated both my birthday and my due date by going to dinner at Encore - can I just say YUM?!?!? You must go, must! That is if you're in the Denver area! http://www.encoreoncolfax.com/

I am picky...it takes a lot for me to give a restaurant an "A"...and this place got an A easily!

Can't wait to go back...my mouth is watering just thinking about it!

Ok, enough about that.

As for our Dr's apt last week...yep, you guessed it-no progress. I'm still only dilated about a 1/2 cm, my cervix is thinning out though, about 65% effaced. I talked to her about stripping my membranes, see: http://www.amazingpregnancy.com/pregnancy-articles/137.html
but since I have such a high cervix...she can't even reach it to do it.

SO...we go back again this Friday 4/30 and we'll see where we're at then.

We'll be a week over due at that point and I expect to hear serious talk of induction-and I won't really have much to argue about then.

Until then-I'm still working part time from home and part time from the office. It's nice, in that the office is letting me do this, but it's also a pain. I'll work through Thursday of this week and then I'll be done, regardless of what happens at our apt on Friday.

Am I ready? Sure...as ready as I can be not having ever done this before. But at this point, I'd really like our baby to wait until the end of the week if possible. I still have a ton of stuff to get done at the office before I can be gone for 14 weeks...

: )

1 day until our due date...

and I'm still pregnant. And, I'm alright with that.

We have a Dr's apt today at 3pm and we'll see what she has to say today. I'm hoping that the Dr. will tell me that my cervix will have made some progress-we'll see.

I get asked several times a day "are you ready to have it over with"-and I've never once needed to answer that question with a "hell yes" or even a "yes." And even today, the answer is the same, I'm fine. I can wait. I want to wait until this little green bean decides to make their grand appearance.

We still very much want to avoid induction and definitely a csection. Having said that, I will do anything, and I mean anything that will help ensure our baby will be healthy. So yes, if the Dr. tells me that our little one is in danger or distress, then you bet-sign me up for whatever keeps our baby safe.

So yes, I'm fine, and I can wait. But...I am so excited to meet this little one and every day with every twinge I wonder if today is the day. I wonder with the biggest smile on my face, with tears in my eyes, with my heart so full of love it hurts...when I'll become a "mom on the outside."

Cran-Orange Struelsel Muffins & Pepper Jack Cheesey Mack

Tried both of these recipes for the first time today-apparently I was in the mood for some comfort food.

The muffins were really good-I had to use craisins in place of the cranberries because I forgot them at the store, what can I say, pregnancy brain. The flavor was still good though-if we make them again I'd want to use chopped real cranberries though.

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Cran-Orange-Streusel-Muffins


Tonight for dinner we had the Pepper Jack Cheesey Mack-it was just 'eh, nothing I'd want to make again, but it was edible. I'm still in search of the best mac and cheese recipe, on the creamy side please. Guess the search continues ...

http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=144036

9 days left? Are you kidding me?

How in the world did we get here? How in the world did it go by so quickly? We're 9 days away from our EDD and I can't believe it.

Last week's Dr's apt was a bit frustrating-I'll recap things for you real quick:
~for the second week in a row my blood pressure was up and the Dr was concerned again about that coupled with my severe swelling in my ankles/feet-see picture on here a couple posts back-UGLY.
~they did lab work again in search of any other signs of preeclampsia
~again the Dr brought up induction and csection, warning me that if the labs came back "bad" that I should be prepared to go do the hospital
~and...AGAIN...the labs came back NORMAL
~THE GOOD NEWS: we had an ultrasound and baby looks great!! They "estimated" the baby weighs abut 7 lbs 4 oz-but that's plus or minus 2 lbs. That means we could have a baby that weighed as little as 5.4 lbs or as much as 9.4 lbs as of last week. The only other info we got was that the baby has a "long femur"-so when I asked the tech if that meant our little one was tall/long she nodded and smiled. I asked if there was anything she saw that we should be concerned with and she said "no" WOO HOO!!

So my frustration comes from the continual talk about induction/csection when so far there seems to be no reason.

Swelling is normal in pregnancy, my blood pressure goes back to normal when I lay on my left side and they've determined they think they baby is laying on my vena cava (http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=5974), my labs are coming back normal and the ultrasound shows baby is fine...so why again are we discussing this??

I hope to avoid induction and csection if I can...so all of this continuous talk is frustrating, worrisome and annoying.

Matt and I have already talked and we'll be asking some more direct questions this week if the same thing happens again. I think I've made it perfectly clear that I want my baby to decide when it's time to go into labor-not drugs or a scalpel.

The other thing that came up was me cutting back on my hours at work-at first I resisted and wasn't even considering it. Sigh...but the truth is, I have to be willing to compromise. So...I started working part time from home and part time from the office a couple of days ago. It's hard-trying to cram everything in when I'm at the office, not let anyone/anything down...but it's the right thing. Last night was the first night in about 2 months that my ankles looked "normal" and my energy is definitely better.

I'm really hoping that this will help tomorrow when it comes to the Dr's apt-my blood pressure, etc.

Wish me luck tomorrow-I still haven't packed a bag...so it can't be tomorrow! ; )

Nursery Sneak Peak!!

So we're almost done-a few finishing touches still to complete but we're almost there!!



Today I thought we'd have the art on the wall ... as it turns out the frames we bought were the wrong size-BOO!



So the sneak peaks here will look a little "blah" with nothing on the walls-we'll get there, eventually just stay tuned!! : )


Here you go!!


~My mom bought us this the weekend we went home to Kansas to make our big announcement-we love it!





~the amazing quilt my sister designed and made for us-I love it!! Aunt Maegan you outdid yourself here!!

~Blank walls for now...art from Etsy to come-stay tuned!

~the closet full of stuff for the little green bean!! Matt painted and installed new closet doors for us-we still need to get new nobs for the doors.

~The valance isn't up yet but you can see the glider & ottoman-not sure we'll keep the ottoman, we don't really like it and it tends to get in the way, not to mention makes it hard for me to get out of the chair! We'll see ...

~Close-up of the tree mural we painted. Some of the leaves are cut out of wood an covered with fabric that Maegan used in the quilt & the eyes on the birds are colored buttons. I have to say, we're pretty darn proud of ourselves!!

~the best photo I could get of the "big picture" - I love sitting in here, feeling the baby move and dreaming of what it will be like when our baby is arrives and we can show them their room.

We're really happy with the way things turned out-it's been a ton of work and at times I wondered if we'd taken on too much-I have to say though, I'm so glad we stuck it out and kept with our plan. Matt and I did this together, for our baby...and I love that.

Swollen...really, really, swollen

Not pretty at all...ugly, swollen, nasty looking feet:

They've been swollen before, but never like this...all the way from my ankles to my toes.

It's not pretty.

It's not comfortable.

I've had a great pregnancy, easy for the most part. Some problems in the first trimester that worked themselves out, but that's about it.

So if this is what the last couple of weeks are going to be like, I can handle this.

But, it's not pretty.

19 days and counting ... we've been busy!!

Yep...only 19 days until we reach our due date, seriously, not kidding.


We reached the 37 week mark this week making us officially "full term" now-whew! So basically what the statistics show is that if this little green bean were to come "now" their lungs would likely be mature enough and would adjust easily to "life on the outside."


So far no real signs of baby making an early appearance...so for now we wait, and wonder, and dream of the day this little one arrives.


In the mean time we've been really busy getting ready for this baby!


Last weekend we had tons going on!


Friday we took the day off to interview day care providers-what a totally emotional roller coaster. Friday was almost a complete disaster. We met with 5 different people and the day started with the first interview being with a day care provider that I didn't' realize I "knew." She answered the door and it was then when I saw her, I realized she was involved with one of my cases at work. I can't go too far into it of course but let's just say that she wasn't the most cooperative witnesses and definitely not the friendliest! I can't believed this happened-I was totally shocked and frankly freaked out. Needless to say-NOT AN OPTION.


We met with a few others that were also NOT AN OPTION before meeting with Erica-we both loved her, and of course she's the most expensive option. Really though, she's totally convenient, wiling to work with our hours, is really structured, her license is spotless with not a single complaint ever filed and we both left her home feeling like there was actually some hope...so while she's the most expensive, from what we saw just on that day, you get what you pay for!


No final decision yet but we are following up with her references and scheduling another meeting/interview so that we can meet with her full time assistant-keep your fingers crossed for us!!


We also installed, and then had inspected the car seat-so now I drive around with a car seat in my car and currently no baby to put in it. It feels a little odd, not going to lie, but at least we're ready!!


We also bought a new camera-a Nikon D3000! We're ready with a new camera and a video camera for tons of Kodak moments!


The nursery is all but finished now-just waiting on some wall art from Etsy to complete things. I gotta say, we did a pretty darn good job in there! I love going in there-it's so cheery and yet soothing all at the same time! We still need to find a small side table to put next to the rocker but other than that I think we're good to go-all we need now is our baby!


We continue to be amazed at the generosity of everyone-today a coworker brought in her practically new/hardly used bassinet for us!! We spent quite a bit of time this weekend working on Thank You notes, just writing them all out reminded us again of how lucky we are to have such great friends and family.


Speaking of family-we spent Easter without family this year, deciding to stay home and have a quiet weekend just the two of us. Matt's family is just up North in Longmont/Loveland, mine of course is back in Kansas. We called and talked to everyone and sent Easter wishes but our weekend with just the two of us was just what I needed. That will most likely be our last 3 day weekend before baby arrives-we needed this time for just us.


Wow...have I rambled on long enough?!?!?